Sherlock Holmes gets grungier and more disheveled every time somebody new plays him. Next time he's going to look like The Dude.
December 22nd, 2009
The Day Job can be really depressing sometimes. Working in media is tough enough, and entertainment media even more so. Case in point: I’m doing a bunch of year-end/decade-end content—best TV, movies, etc.—and looking at the lists of best films is just… crushing.
Of the top critically-lauded films of the past several years, only a couple have a strong female lead or strong supporting role. Most have only a token female (long-suffering wife, damsel in distress, faceless love interest) and some have no female roles at all. The top-grossing films are even more sad. Only one good, major female role out of the top-25 films of all time is an adult human whose identity isn't built largely around some guy* (Laura Dern in “Jurassic Park”--the same film that featured a girl computer genius). The only other good roles are a forgetful fish and a wand-wielding, know-it-all child.
It's true that there isn't exactly a dearth of women in film in general. It's just that the vast majority of roles are for younger women who spend most of their screen time either showing off cleavage or agonizing over some dude.
Roles for older women have been in greater supply these days, though they’re still few and far between, and often aren’t much more than just the post-divorce version of the chick flicks that have constituted the majority of women’s lead roles for the past two generations. Even for the films with prominent non-sex-kitten roles, each usually boils down very succinctly to wife/mother/girlfriend: “Far From Heaven”, for instance, is a fantastic movie with a strong lead role (played brilliantly by Julianne Moore), but ultimately, the story boils down to “long-suffering housewife”—much the same as many of the other roles Moore played around the same time. Even female superheroes can’t get beyond those labels. Elastigirl still kissed her husband goodbye as he left for the office (even if she did save his ass later on) and the less said about what Brett Ratner did to Jean Grey in X3, the better.
Even worse, the list of popular/acclaimed films directed, written and/or produced by women is even smaller. This year, Katherine Bigelow is getting a lot of attention for “The Hurt Locker,” but it didn’t make a lot of money, and it remains to be seen whether the critics' love for it translates into the big-name awards. Sofia Coppola hung her hat on a tacky May/December story (and a long shot of ScarJo’s ass) and hasn’t been seen since. Jane Campion seems to be dedicated solely to writing tone poems on Harlequin Romance themes. Strangely enough, the most acclaimed/successful women behind the scenes in film right now are Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, and they usually get ignored in favor of media attention that pretends Peter Jackson is a one-man moviemaking army.
How did it come to this? And how can we get beyond it?
( Critical mass )
It isn't just that many men--including male critics--somehow think their balls are going to fall off if they watch a movie about a woman. It's that what speaks to any of us is going to be characters or emotional issues we can identify with. And since one of our primary identities is gender (see my previous post), that means that stories about men's lives and emotional dilemmas are naturally going to resonate more with male critics. They are going to find more of a "human" story in something like "There Will be Blood" than something like "Veronica Guerin".
Obviously, it's still important to keep demanding that studios give more opportunities to women--both in front of and behind the camera--but I think it's also important that media start hiring more women critics. Women are half the potential moviegoing audience, after all, and having more representatives for us writing about these movies is going to bring more of us into the theater, because they'll be seeking out and promoting those films that will appeal to us when they're otherwise not getting enough of a push from an indifferent studio marketing system. We know about the big blockbusters, so we go see them. We don't know about the smaller films but for what critics start pushing. And thusfar, those critics are primarily pushing yet another dreary story about some guy with an existential career crisis. Hey. Women have career crises too, y'know. Hmph.
*Some might argue that Princess Leia should be here. Two words: brass bikini.
Of the top critically-lauded films of the past several years, only a couple have a strong female lead or strong supporting role. Most have only a token female (long-suffering wife, damsel in distress, faceless love interest) and some have no female roles at all. The top-grossing films are even more sad. Only one good, major female role out of the top-25 films of all time is an adult human whose identity isn't built largely around some guy* (Laura Dern in “Jurassic Park”--the same film that featured a girl computer genius). The only other good roles are a forgetful fish and a wand-wielding, know-it-all child.
It's true that there isn't exactly a dearth of women in film in general. It's just that the vast majority of roles are for younger women who spend most of their screen time either showing off cleavage or agonizing over some dude.
Roles for older women have been in greater supply these days, though they’re still few and far between, and often aren’t much more than just the post-divorce version of the chick flicks that have constituted the majority of women’s lead roles for the past two generations. Even for the films with prominent non-sex-kitten roles, each usually boils down very succinctly to wife/mother/girlfriend: “Far From Heaven”, for instance, is a fantastic movie with a strong lead role (played brilliantly by Julianne Moore), but ultimately, the story boils down to “long-suffering housewife”—much the same as many of the other roles Moore played around the same time. Even female superheroes can’t get beyond those labels. Elastigirl still kissed her husband goodbye as he left for the office (even if she did save his ass later on) and the less said about what Brett Ratner did to Jean Grey in X3, the better.
Even worse, the list of popular/acclaimed films directed, written and/or produced by women is even smaller. This year, Katherine Bigelow is getting a lot of attention for “The Hurt Locker,” but it didn’t make a lot of money, and it remains to be seen whether the critics' love for it translates into the big-name awards. Sofia Coppola hung her hat on a tacky May/December story (and a long shot of ScarJo’s ass) and hasn’t been seen since. Jane Campion seems to be dedicated solely to writing tone poems on Harlequin Romance themes. Strangely enough, the most acclaimed/successful women behind the scenes in film right now are Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, and they usually get ignored in favor of media attention that pretends Peter Jackson is a one-man moviemaking army.
How did it come to this? And how can we get beyond it?
( Critical mass )
It isn't just that many men--including male critics--somehow think their balls are going to fall off if they watch a movie about a woman. It's that what speaks to any of us is going to be characters or emotional issues we can identify with. And since one of our primary identities is gender (see my previous post), that means that stories about men's lives and emotional dilemmas are naturally going to resonate more with male critics. They are going to find more of a "human" story in something like "There Will be Blood" than something like "Veronica Guerin".
Obviously, it's still important to keep demanding that studios give more opportunities to women--both in front of and behind the camera--but I think it's also important that media start hiring more women critics. Women are half the potential moviegoing audience, after all, and having more representatives for us writing about these movies is going to bring more of us into the theater, because they'll be seeking out and promoting those films that will appeal to us when they're otherwise not getting enough of a push from an indifferent studio marketing system. We know about the big blockbusters, so we go see them. We don't know about the smaller films but for what critics start pushing. And thusfar, those critics are primarily pushing yet another dreary story about some guy with an existential career crisis. Hey. Women have career crises too, y'know. Hmph.
*Some might argue that Princess Leia should be here. Two words: brass bikini.
cynical
It's a holiday miracle on All My Children as Greenlee Smythe "returns from the dead."
source: DaytimeConfidential
relaxed
-Back to the top 12 boys/top 12 girls semifinal
-No wildcard
-Premieres on January 12th
-Finals start March 23rd17th
-Guest judges for auditions: Victoria Beckham, Mary J. Blige, Kristin Chenoweth, Neil Patrick Harris, Joe Jonas, Avril Lavigne, Katy Perry and Shania Twain.
-Ellen will debut during Hollywood week
( The details and Auditions/Semi-Finals Schedule )
source: http://news-briefs.ew.com/2009/12/22/ame
It’s something of a small miracle that Michael Cerveris is still standing. The Tony Award winner (the versatile stage star won for his performance in Assassins in 2004 and scored three additional nominations for Tommy, Sweeney Todd and Love/Musik) routinely manages to cram what seems like three days of work and activities into just 24 hours. Cerveris neighborhood-hops across Manhattan (when he’s not being shipped overnight on his one day off to Vancouver to film episodes of Fringe) at a pace that would leave lesser talents sprawled out in the street, exhausted. Broadway.com learned this all first-hand, as we followed the star of Broadway’s In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play from Union Square to the Lower East Side to the Lyceum Theatre and beyond for an exclusive look at the life of one of the busiest (yet laid back) men on Broadway.
( Lots of pics )
SOURCE
Outtakes from Julia Roberts and Clive Owen's Entertainment Weekly photoshoot
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
baglady25 posting in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
ohnotheydidnt
( you fucked up slag )
source
I'm not too crazy about Julia, but I can't deny that these two have great chemistry together.
lazy
( Read more... )![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif){kind=small}
The show of the '00s was like a great novel. Plus: Gangsters, vampire slayers and Jon Stewart
Why is it that women who divest themselves of the commercial trappings of artificial femininity are considered to be "acting like men" (and subsequently dismissed for doing so)?
(Same question in the converse, too. Why are guys who aren't into sports, cars and bikini models derided as effeminate?)
As someone who has some very, very close transgender friends, and who identifies as genderqueer, let me be perfectly clear: Not wanting to conform to commodified ideals of masculine or feminine does not make a given person transgender, or a traitor to their sex. Gender identity is a far deeper and more complex thing than just "I like sports, therefore I'm male."
Women who fight against the destructive cultural forces that want to limit our worlds to madonnas and whores aren't betraying womanhood. Women who question the "retro" domestic womanhood/girly pinup trend aren't bad feminists who secretly hate other women. And men who reject the call to drown themselves in violence and machinery aren't ineffectual sissies incapable of decision making or leadership roles.
Generally speaking, all gender is a cultural construct. Men and women aren't physically different enough to account for the vast differences in personality we're assumed to have by nature. But it's still possible to have a true gender identity that roughly conforms to one's sex (birth or otherwise) that nonetheless has nothing whatsoever to do with stereotypical sets of purchasing habits, adornment preferences, hobbies and character traits. There are, in other words, plenty of "real" women and men who simply just don't fit the marketing profiles they're supposed to. Working toward dismantling those marketing profiles doesn't mean one is attempting to dismantle women or men.
The companies that make their money off of gender insecurity have spent fortunes trying to convince us that their version of womanhood and manhood isn't just natural and normal, but an essential part of one's personality. If we start having identity crises when we wake up and realize that hey, high heels are damned uncomfortable or there's really nothing interesting about boxing, then they've done their jobs. They want us to fear losing that framework for our sense of self. They want us to attack members of our group who don't perpetuate those molds (and especially those who fight against them.) They want to redefine feminism as a defense of traditional female subservience and intellectual indifference. They want to perpetuate the idea that a "real man" eats artery-clogging burgers and drives planet-destroying behemoths.
They want you to panic and therefore lash out when you see someone offering a way out of this endless cycle of self-hatred medicated by their products.
Rejecting commercialized gender isn't easy, especially for young feminists who have been steeped in the idea that their cause involves putting aside abortion rights activism for retro burlesque shows. But it's honestly one of the best things we can all do as progressives to further our overall goals of economic and political justice. The companies that want to keep exploiting workers and turning the planet into charcoal are the same ones who want you to freak out at the idea of being mocked as an ugly butch or a simpering sissy. It's one of their fastest and easiest ways to keep us in line. The more you worry about whether your friends and family think you're feminine or masculine enough, the less mental bandwidth you have left to defeat their nefarious schemes, y'know? Loosing their grip on our nads is a quick way to make it easier to put more effort into the larger scale problems we want to solve.
We all have strong, fully formed identities that aren't dependent on conforming to commercial versions of gender roles. It's time we embrace those identities--and those of others--and start starving the beast that has kept us all down for far too long.
(Same question in the converse, too. Why are guys who aren't into sports, cars and bikini models derided as effeminate?)
As someone who has some very, very close transgender friends, and who identifies as genderqueer, let me be perfectly clear: Not wanting to conform to commodified ideals of masculine or feminine does not make a given person transgender, or a traitor to their sex. Gender identity is a far deeper and more complex thing than just "I like sports, therefore I'm male."
Women who fight against the destructive cultural forces that want to limit our worlds to madonnas and whores aren't betraying womanhood. Women who question the "retro" domestic womanhood/girly pinup trend aren't bad feminists who secretly hate other women. And men who reject the call to drown themselves in violence and machinery aren't ineffectual sissies incapable of decision making or leadership roles.
Generally speaking, all gender is a cultural construct. Men and women aren't physically different enough to account for the vast differences in personality we're assumed to have by nature. But it's still possible to have a true gender identity that roughly conforms to one's sex (birth or otherwise) that nonetheless has nothing whatsoever to do with stereotypical sets of purchasing habits, adornment preferences, hobbies and character traits. There are, in other words, plenty of "real" women and men who simply just don't fit the marketing profiles they're supposed to. Working toward dismantling those marketing profiles doesn't mean one is attempting to dismantle women or men.
The companies that make their money off of gender insecurity have spent fortunes trying to convince us that their version of womanhood and manhood isn't just natural and normal, but an essential part of one's personality. If we start having identity crises when we wake up and realize that hey, high heels are damned uncomfortable or there's really nothing interesting about boxing, then they've done their jobs. They want us to fear losing that framework for our sense of self. They want us to attack members of our group who don't perpetuate those molds (and especially those who fight against them.) They want to redefine feminism as a defense of traditional female subservience and intellectual indifference. They want to perpetuate the idea that a "real man" eats artery-clogging burgers and drives planet-destroying behemoths.
They want you to panic and therefore lash out when you see someone offering a way out of this endless cycle of self-hatred medicated by their products.
Rejecting commercialized gender isn't easy, especially for young feminists who have been steeped in the idea that their cause involves putting aside abortion rights activism for retro burlesque shows. But it's honestly one of the best things we can all do as progressives to further our overall goals of economic and political justice. The companies that want to keep exploiting workers and turning the planet into charcoal are the same ones who want you to freak out at the idea of being mocked as an ugly butch or a simpering sissy. It's one of their fastest and easiest ways to keep us in line. The more you worry about whether your friends and family think you're feminine or masculine enough, the less mental bandwidth you have left to defeat their nefarious schemes, y'know? Loosing their grip on our nads is a quick way to make it easier to put more effort into the larger scale problems we want to solve.
We all have strong, fully formed identities that aren't dependent on conforming to commercial versions of gender roles. It's time we embrace those identities--and those of others--and start starving the beast that has kept us all down for far too long.
frustratedIn This Episode: www.tomharrisusa.com
It’s a Holiday Special, featuring THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS!! OH NOES!!
Music By The Crimson Twins, www.crimsontwins.com
It’s a Holiday Special, featuring THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS!! OH NOES!!
Music By The Crimson Twins, www.crimsontwins.com
TMZ has learned Christina Aguilera was involved in a minor car accident in West Hollywood moments ago.
According to witnesses at the scene ... Aguilera was riding shotgun in her own Range Rover -- which was being driven by her assistant -- when her SUV rear-ended another vehicle. As you can see in the photo of Aguilera's SUV above, the damage is minor -- we're also told no one complained of injuries.
Aguilera left the scene with her bodyguard shortly after the accident -- her assistant stayed behind with the SUV.
Story developing...
www.tmz.com/2009/12/22/christina-aguiler
According to witnesses at the scene ... Aguilera was riding shotgun in her own Range Rover -- which was being driven by her assistant -- when her SUV rear-ended another vehicle. As you can see in the photo of Aguilera's SUV above, the damage is minor -- we're also told no one complained of injuries.
Aguilera left the scene with her bodyguard shortly after the accident -- her assistant stayed behind with the SUV.
Story developing...
www.tmz.com/2009/12/22/christina-aguiler
Sienna Miller struts her bikini body as she takes a dip in the water on a Barbados beach on Tuesday (December 22).
The 27-year-old British actress reportedly asked her on-and-off-again boyfriend Jude Law to join her in Barbados for the Christmas holiday and he is considering her proposal.
Last Wednesday, Jude and Sienna shared a romantic horse and carriage ride around Central Park.
Jane Lynch may truly be getting all she wants for Christmas.
The actress, hot off her Satellite Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild nominations for her turn as the snarky cheerleading coach on Fox's Glee, is getting just what she asked for: For her coach Sue Sylvester to sing.
After her campaign last month to Glee creator/writer Ryan Murphy for a scene in song, Murphy seems to have given in, according to Entertainment Weekly.
"I have read the first two episodes and I can tell you that I will be singing and dancing," Lynch told EW. "I can't tell you what I'm singing because it's top-secret."
Asked for a hint, Lynch channeled Sue: "It's a very cold song."
Source
Predictions, ONTD? My best guess:
Brittany Murphy was known for playing troubled characters, like in "Girl, Interrupted" and "Don't Say A Word." In the 2010 thriller "Abandoned," Murphy stars as a woman who embarks on a frantic search for her boyfriend when he disappears from a hospital after a routine treatment.
In this clip from "Abandoned," which Brittany spent the month of June shooting, Murphy is being evaluated by a doctor who doesn't believe her memories are valid.
It's reported Murphy's husband Simon Monjack was a bad influence on the late actress, but "Abandoned" director Michael Feifer says the couple had a "loving relationship."
"The two of them have the sweetest most loving relationship," Feifer tells "Extra." "They watched over each other and took care of each other and we were all shocked at how connected they were." Feifer says he met Murphy the first day on-set. Murphy was in her trailer and "she gave me the warmest sweetest hug," Feifer remembers. He adds, "She glowed all the time."
Feifer said the actress was delightful to work with and dedicated to the project. "She knew her material, and she was on her game," he said Tuesday. "She was professional. She was there for me. She was healthy."
"She's such a pro and so good at her craft that she could turn it on and off as necessary," Feifer said. "One minute she'd be immersed in a dramatic scene, the next she'd be joking around with the crew or playing with her white Maltese," which often accompanied her on set.
Feifer admits he was "shocked" and "saddened" by the star's death but he really enjoyed working with Murphy, "I had a really sweet relationship with her." He says she was giving, prepared and she made friends with everybody. He continues, "She was always on the ball."
Murphy took on "Abandoned" just days after wrapping her role as a psychiatrist in the mystery thriller "Something Wicked." Executive producer Scott Chambers told the Los Angeles Times that though Murphy appeared frail, he was impressed with her work ethic. "She looked ill, as much as 10 pounds underweight, and she's a small person to begin with," he said. "She easily could have made an excuse not to come to work, but she didn't. She said, 'I've got to get better, but I want to do this part.'"
Still can't believe she's gone...
Source
Source 2
Source 3
sad
One of the "Real Housewives of Orange County" is officially a wanted woman -- accused of blowing off a judge in a million dollar legal battle. Lynne Curtin and her husband Frank were supposed to appear in a Southern California courtroom yesterday to answer questions relating to a $1.2 million judgment they were ordered to pay to a former business partner -- but the couple completely bailed on the proceedings. Now a judge in Riverside County, CA has issued a bench warrant for both Lynne and Frank's arrest. It's been a rough year for Lynne's fam -- as TMZ previously reported, they were also evicted from their home back in August for not paying rent.
SOURCE
I'm too young for this mid-life crisis, and yet
it grinds on, urging me to quit my job three days
before Christmas and become a yogi, a teacher,
a sailor, a student, just a week before a New Year
I'm not ready to ring in without a cigarette, a shot
glass full of fuck-it, and the familiar sense that my life
is a serious of missteps, the backwards waltz
of a drunken, three-legged pit bull in a sequined gown
on a television dance competition.
There's magic there, and sometimes it's funny,
but I never make it to the finals stage.
No, this dog and I--this graceless street mutt and I--
we whirl and turn and occasionally fall down, laughing.
We kick our five legs not quite in unison, the world's
sloppiest can-can, and both wake up hungover,
me holding my head waiting for the spinning to stop,
the dog asking in its dog language, "Are we there yet?"
it grinds on, urging me to quit my job three days
before Christmas and become a yogi, a teacher,
a sailor, a student, just a week before a New Year
I'm not ready to ring in without a cigarette, a shot
glass full of fuck-it, and the familiar sense that my life
is a serious of missteps, the backwards waltz
of a drunken, three-legged pit bull in a sequined gown
on a television dance competition.
There's magic there, and sometimes it's funny,
but I never make it to the finals stage.
No, this dog and I--this graceless street mutt and I--
we whirl and turn and occasionally fall down, laughing.
We kick our five legs not quite in unison, the world's
sloppiest can-can, and both wake up hungover,
me holding my head waiting for the spinning to stop,
the dog asking in its dog language, "Are we there yet?"